Flight to Brisbane to meet with my mates of the Chilean Navy training ship "Esmeralda"

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And finally a date I was looking forwards to, arrived. The Chilean Navy tall ship training vessel "Esmeralda" arrived in Australia as part of this year's 9 month 'round the world trip. The "Esmeralda" touched port in Sydney and Brisbane.

I was part of the crew of this vessel in 2002 and 2004 and this year I had two good friends as part of the crew: Lt. Eduardo Moreno and Lt. Cmdr. Andrés Silva. Every time this ship arrives in a port, a reception is given for the city's authorities and other invited guests.

Before I left Chile in February, I handed Eduardo a suit to wear at the ship's reception (I still didn't know if I was going to be invited or not), but just in case. By then I still didn't know if I was going to try to go to the reception in Sydney or to the one in Brisbane. Finally, because I'm now working in Port Douglas, it was easier to fly to Brisbane.

In Brisbane, I was also going to meet with another friend of mine, Marcel Le-Fevre and his wife, Yessica, who I hadn't met yet. He's an ex-marine and classmate of Eduardo and I (Chilean Naval Academy Class of '02). The 3 of us also did the trip on board the "Esmeralda" in 2002 so this reunion, 10 years after doing the trip, was something the three of us were expecting.

I woke up Thursday 28th of June at 2:30am to catch a bus to Cairns airport and from there, take the 6am flight to Brisbane.

I had bever been in that city and needed to do a few things before going to see the ship (I was expecting it to arrive at noon, as is usual). I arrived in Brisbane at around 8:15 and by 9:30 I was at a hostel which Marcel had booked. Not the best option (it was actually one of the worst ones I've been in), "Cloud 9", with all due respect, a shithole. Anyway, I left my things in a room of 8 people and walked to a shopping center. I had received and e-mail from Mallory Vogel, Eduardo's girlfriend, asking me if I could buy the 7th season of the TV show "24", because she wanted him to get it in Brisbane. It didn't take me long to find it in a "JB Hi-Fi" electronics store.

After buying the DVDs, I went to an internet cafe, because I needed to send a letter to my Commanding Officer in the Navy to formally ask for a second year without pay (2013, if the world hasn't ended yet). I needed to sign the letter (which was already written), scan it and send it. It didn't take long and as soon as I was done with that, I went to a tourist information center to ask how to get to Hamilton Pier 2 (this is where the "Esmeralda" was going to berth) and apparently it is not a very known name because the people in the tourist information office had no idea where it was and I didn't have the actual address of the pier. They told me to try in the cruise passenger terminal, so I took a bus there, not sure if I was going in the right direction. I got off in a bus stop (Bretts Wharf), which was the closest one to the the cruise terminal and walked to it.

It was raining from time to time that day and I was only wearing shorts and a sweater. The thing is, when I went to Cairns from Sydney in mid-April, I left most of my clothes in the Abyss Scuba Diving shop in Sydney because I wanted to travel light and since I stayed in Port Douglas after that, I didn't really need anything else but shorts and T-shirts. A friend of mine in Sydney, César Silva, went to the dive shop, got the bag and gave it to Eduardo Moreno so he could give it to me in Brisbane (saved a bit of money not having to have it sent from Sydney). Anyway, until the "Esmeralda" arrived in Brisbane, I didn't have much to wear besides what I had on that day (at least it wasn't that cold).

After asking around, I finally got to Hamilton Pier 2 and by a fluke, I ran into a port security employee who happened to be with the port master. I asked the port master if the ship was berthing there and at what time they were expected to arrive. He said he knew the information, but asked me for ID before answering. After I showed him my passport, he explained that because of the harsh weather conditions outside the entry to Brisbane, the "Esmeralda" was supposed to arrive between 18:00 and 22:00, so that meant that I had flew in early for nothing. After hearing the news, I had to find out if the reception was still on for that evening. I took a bus back to the center of Brisbane and went to the same internet cafe I had been in before. I had to call a few Chilean consulates and the embassy to finally get in touch with the right person, Sandra Cabrera. She told me that the reception had been postponed for the next day.

I had received a phone call that day before getting to Hamilton Pier from Andrés Costa, an "uncle" of mine. He's the brother of an uncle in law of mine and I've known him for years. He does a lot of businness with Australian mining and wine producing companies and he was in Brisbane for a few meetings with mining entrepeneurs. He called me to get together for dinner that night, so we agreed to meet at around 6:30pm outside the hotel he was staying in.

After the internet cafe I went walking back to the hostel. As far as Brisbane goes, I didn't find it particularly different from other big cities, except for the riverside which is really nice, with a good walking path, ideal for running, cycling and walking. That, I think is the biggest attraction of the city. After getting back to the hostel, I slept for a few hours. At around 5:30pm I left the hostel again and walked to the Andrés' hotel. I met him about an hour later and he was there with his representative in Australia, Marcelo Salas (a very friendly guy whom I had met in Sydney a few times) and with Mauro Mezzano, another Chilean entrepeneur. We had a few beers in the hotel's bar and then went to the riverside to look for a place to have dinner. We ended up in a steak house and had to wait for about 30 minutes to be seated, so in the meantime we had a glass of wine in the restaurant's bar (I was still in the same clothes I had flown with that morning). Dinner was great, the meat and side dishes excellent and all with good wine as well. After dinner, I told them that we should go see if the "Esmeralda" had arrived. They agreed to the idea and we took a taxi to Hamilton Pier 2. When we got there, we were stopped by the security staff (all Australian) and they told us we couldn't go to the ship unless we were on a very specific list the Chilean consul had given them (of course we weren't on the list). After talking with them for a while, we got the consul's number and Marcelo Salas called her (he knew her from before). Somehow, Andrés Costa got hold of the Commanding Officer (CO), (they had been in the Navy together) and finally we got permission to go on board. Before boarding, I saw the Executive Officer (XO), Cmdr. Raddatz who had been my XO in 2009 and went to say hi. After boarding the ship, Andrés, Marcelo and Mauro headed to the CO's mess and I went to the Officer's mess. Upon entering I saw the Engineering Officer, (submariner) who I had met previously in Chile. Also, in there were Andrés Silva and Francisca Fuentes (she's the dentist on board and I know her since we were in school) and other officers (all younger than I) who I hadn't met before. After a while I met with Eduardo as well and later, Marcel Le-Fevre and his wife arrived. It was a great start to the weekend catching up with all of them, having a few "picolas" (typical Chilean drink, "Pisco" + Coca Cola) which I hadn't had since I left Chile in February. That night on the "Esmeralda" I was finally reunited with my backpack and the rest of my clothes and finally had at least jeans to wear. We went out in a big group at around 11pm, but it was already too late for a Brisbane weekday night, so after going to a few places and finding them almost empty, we called it a night at around 1am.

Short note on the side: I was the only one who was asked for ID in one of the places because I looked "too young". I'm turning 31 this year, must've been the clean shave.

I was staying in the same hostel room with Marcel and Yessica and 5 other people and we decided to check out the next day and look for another place.

The next morning we moved to a 3 person room in the "City Backpackers" hostel and I've got to admit I had lost faith in backpacker hostels until I got to this one; it was really good. It was clean, we had an ensuite bathroom, people were generally quite in the sleeping areas, good common areas, good view, etc. After moving in, we went to have breakfast and ended up having it in a place called "Pie Face", a chain of coffee shops. Then we went to meet with Eduardo Moreno and Felipe Rodríguez (I had been his instructor in the "Esmeralda" in 2004) in the city center. They spent most of the time catching up with family, girlfriends and friends on the internet. At around 5pm, Marcel and Yessica went back to the hostel to get ready for the reception and I went with Eduardo and Felipe to the "Esmeralda", because my suit was there. When I got to the Esmeralda, I asked if there was one of hairdressers available and I got a decent haircut after almost 3 months. After that I changed into my suit (which felt strange since I hadn't worn a tie since December) and went to the main deck, where the reception was starting. That night I met with Mauro Mezzano again and then spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up with my friends. It was akward being on the ship as a "civilian" for the first time and being in the reception brought back a lot of memories. The receptions are usually as follows: guests arrive and drinks are served (in abundance). The midshipmen and officers mingle with the guests and there's always a "kamikaze guard" (midshipmen that are appointed to entertain whoever is alone during the reception; usually not pretty girls). Then, the CO will make a short speech and then canapés and appetizers will be served. There's also a buffet light meal and desserts. At one point, the ship's band will start playing party music for a few hours and then it finishes with someone from the crew putting music for the rest of the night. The reception finished at around midnight and then none of my friends went out, because it was already too late and because they had to be up at around 5am because the ship needed to move in order to make way for a cruise ship. I slept in a cabin that wasn't being used in the ship that night, so I didn't have to go to the hostel.

Saturday morning I woke up at around 9am, took a shower and then waited until Eduardo and Felipe were allowed to leave the ship. We took a taxi to my hostel because I needed to drop my backpack and we had to meet with Marcel and Yessica. The plan that day was to go to Gold Coast, specifically Surfer's Paradise beach, a renowned tourist place in Australia (people in Chile, think of an oversized Reñaca). We hopped on a train from Roma station and it took about an hour to get to Gold Coast. There we were met by Yessica's employer, a Chilean woman whose name I can't remember and she drove us to Surfer's Paradise and left us there. The beach is nice in general, but it didn't make a huge impression on me. There are lots of buildings by the beach and there are continuous waves running all day. The day was a bit chilly so there weren't many people in the beach.

We had lunch there, walked by the beach, took photos, slept for a while in the sand and then we went back to the train station and back to Brisbane. When we got there, Felipe and Eduardo went back to the ship and Marcel, Yessica and I went to the hostel to get some sleep. We woke up at around 9:30pm and then went to meet with Eduardo and the others in the party center of Brisbane (Fortitude Valley). The club we were going to had a semi formal attire dresscode and Marcel and I weren't allowed in, so with Yessica we decided to go to a more chilled out place. We had a few beers until about 2am and then headed back to the hostel. It turned out, there were a few places to go out about 2 blocks from the hostel and we ended up in a club called "Casablanca", which had really good music (live and DJ). I ended up dancing with a Colombian girl there and it was much better than the places we had been at in Fortitude Valley. We stayed there until 4am and then I had to say goodbye, grab a taxi to go to the airport and catch the 6am flight back to Cairns. Needless to say I thought I was going to sleep in the plane (I was seating next to the aisle), plugged in my mp3 player and went to sleep, but next to me there was a mother with a young kid who apparently had bladder control problems because I was woken up every 30 minutes or so for the kid to go to the toilet.

I got to Cairns at around 8:30am and then grabbed a bus to Port Douglas, in which I managed to sleep for a while.

After I arrived to Port Douglas, I ran into Bruce and Giselle, who told me that night there was a triple birthday celebration at the Courthouse Hotel (Giselle, Richard and Alicia; all Calypso employees).

I didn't sleep that evening and at around 7pm the 3 of took a taxi to the "Courty". It was good fun, most of the crew was there, we had live music, good food, good drinks, etc., but all I was thinking of was my bed. We spent the last 1/2 hour in the Iron Bar and then finally took a taxi back home at around midnight to get about 6 hours of sleep before I had to wake up to get to work next morning.

It was a full on weekend and it was totally worth it.

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Photos

Invitation to the "Esmeralda"
Better to have friends than money

Reception in the "Esmeralda"
With Eduardo Moreno and Andrés Silva

Reception in the "Esmeralda"
With Eduardo Moreno and Marcel Le-Fevre

Officer's mess
With Andres Silva, Yessica Terán, Marcel Le-Fevre, Eduardo Moreno and "Mono" Gaete

Comments

[Andres]

saludos desde Lonquen
Hola daniel, Que entretenido e intenso tu fin de semana. Me imagino lo grato que debe haber sido estar en la Esmeralda con amigos y lo interesante que es mirar las cosas desde el otro lado. Acá todos bien, sin novedad. Este fin de seman llega Camila desde Mexico que es hija de la hermana de Monica y viene a pasr un mes con nosotros. ella es de la edad de la Asun y los niños está my emocionados. Esta semana entró una onda polar por lo que varios dias han sido bajo cero. la viña amanece blanca totalemente escarchada. Helado pero muy bonito. Es todo por estos lados, un abrazo Andres